Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks has turned it on lately and is still available in 30% of fantasy Leagues. Pick him up while he’s hot. Over the last 30 days, Goldschmidt is batting .377 with 6 home-runs and 2 stolen bases, ranking him #1 among all first basemen for the time period.

Now is the time to pick up Alex Rios of the Chicago White Sox. Rios is hitting .297 with 8 home runs and 7 stolen bases but is still unowned in 35% of fantasy leagues. After a dismal 2011 campaign, Rios appears to be back to his 201o form where he batted .281 with 21 home-runs and 34 stolen bases ranking him among the best outfielders in fantasy baseball.

Here’s a look at some under the radar players available in the majority of online leagues.

Aaron Cook – Starting Pitcher – Colorado Rockies – Cook, 2008’s runner-up for surprise pitcher of the year (Cliff Lee kind of stole his thunder) is back and has strung together five quality starts in a row after an abysmal start to the 2009 season. In those outings, he has a 3-2 record and allowed only two runs while striking out 11 and walking two in his last two starts, which spanned 14 innings.

Trevor Cahill – Starting Pitcher – Oakland A’s – Cahill was a hot name prior to the season and is one of Oakland’s top prospects. He’s not going to help you in wins since Oakland just doesn’t score runs and he’s even less help in the K department, but four of Cahill’s last five starts have been quality ones. He’s definitely been pitching better as of late and should only continue to improve. If you’re in a 12 team league, Cahill’s worth a pick up.

Juan L. Rivera – Outfield – Anaheim Angels – Rivera missed the majority of the 2007 season with a broken leg and struggled early on in 08′. He gained some steam after the all-star break and had a ridiculous July, in which he hit .311 with six home runs. He’s just gone on a similar run once again and is a nice guy to have while he’s on these rolls. Over his last 28 games, he’s batting .337 and has hit 7 deep balls.

When it comes to fantasy baseball, if you’re going to head to a draft with just one thing…it better be an average draft position list. ADP’s will give you a heads up on who other league participants will be drafting so that you can plan out your drafting strategy. I have taken the results of numerous average draft position lists and compiled them so you can have one Ultimate Fantasy Baseball ADP. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

Last year I competed in two leagues. One had ten teams, one had just eight. I had virtually the same roster in both leagues, which is a bit odd since, in the larger league, you would think that the talent would be more spread out. What makes this even more strange is that I made the championship in the larger league, while I floundered in the smaller league. How could this happen…Chipper Jones.

You see, my smaller league required weekly lineups, while my larger league had daily rosters. Chipper Jones (who I will refer to herinafter as “the bastard”) had a wonderful habit of starting a game on Monday, leaving in the second inning and not returning until he could once again bang me in the poop shoot the following Monday. In the daily lineups league, the bastard was extremely valuable because his production, when he did play, was stellar. In the weekly lineup league, the bastard was nothing but a cancer, causing me to lose in runs, stolen bases, home runs, and hits on a weekly basis!

Moral of the story, if you’re in a daily lineup league – jump on the bastard around pick #70 in your draft. His production will be well worth the nagging injuries. If you’re in a weekly lineup league, avoid him like the plague!

So it’s time for your fantasy baseball draft. I’ll be posting some quick tips for fantasy drafts throughout the next week or so and on Saturday will be posting my Ultimate Fantasy ADP, a must have resource for any fantasy draft.

For now, I’m going to focus on a what has been a hot topic for fantasy pundits for many years now, whether or not you should enter the draft with the intention of punting a specific category. What this means, in a nutshell, is that in a head to head league you draft with a focus on tanking a specific scoring category to gain an advantage in all other categories. Read the rest of this entry »

1) Adam Jones, Baltimore – Can you say five tool stud? Jones is what fantasy dreams are made of and has a .314 batting average since May, hitting his first career grand slam in the sixth inning on Monday against the Yankees. Jones was the key player in the trade that sent Bedard to the Mariners and is starting to pay dividends for the O’s. Grab him now.

2) Ian Stewart, Colorado – The 2003 first round pick of the Colorado Rockies (10th overall) is finally getting regular playing time. Better yet, due to a myriad of injuries in the Colorado infield, Stewart now qualifies at second base. Stewart has good power and balls fly out of Coors field in August!

3) Jeff Baker, Colorado – As I said with Stewart…balls fly out of Coors field in August. Jeff Baker has been a hit machine since the all-star break batting nearly .500 with three home runs. He qualifies at first and second base.

4) Paul Maholm, Pittsburgh – If you need wins you may want to look elsewhere but Maholm is on an impressive 11 start streak in which he has compiled a 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 51 Ks in his last 78.1 innings. He’s 5-1 in that span, but again…don’t look for too many wins pitching for the Pirates.